MANDERS WINS WA TITLE #2

Kaiden Manders races to victory in the 2022 WA Speedcar Championship.  Photo courtesy Richard Hathaway Photography

Kaiden Manders has quite a few title wins already under his belt in a number of divisions and Saturday night, March 19, at the Perth Motorplex he added another one when he grabbed his second win in the WA Speedcar Championship!

Manders, again aboard the Graham Jones Racing #4 machine, qualified onto the front row of the feature after a win and a second place in his two heats, alongside his regular sparring partner Tom Payet, who claimed two heat wins for pole position.

The first attempt at a start in the twenty-five lap feature was called back quickly for a jump, while the second start saw Payet and Manders banging wheels to the line, with Payet going to the top and Manders the bottom.Unfortunately again it was all for nothing as the yellows came on again, this time for Tom Callaghan who spun to a stop in turn two.

Take three and Payet again edged Manders out through the first turn, with Manders shooting back into the lead before yet again the yellows came on for Stuart Yates who spun in turn two. Attempt number four saw Manders and Payet again side by side, with Manders shooting away down the back straight to lead the first lap.

Payet settled into second with Kaidon Brown and Keenan Fleming throwing slide jobs on each other for third.The top two began to pull away but on lap four it was all reduced to nothing as Patrick Watson spun in turn two. Manders led away Payet and Brown as the race went green again, and with Manders and Payet fighting it out in incredibly close quarters again, the race was stopped with Yates spinning to a stop again, this time in turn four and ending his race.

The race resumed once again and Manders got away while Brown picked his moment to strike and began trading slide jobs with Payet for second. Payet got the better of Brown and set out after Manders – the two side by side on lap fourteen as they approached heavy lapped traffic. The battle continued to intensify once again between the top two as they got through the lapped cars, but, shortly after, one of the lapped cars driven in Ross Heywood spun high in turn two and third place running Brown had nowhere to go, clipping the back of Heywood’s car on the way through with his front left and ending his race.

This meant Manders led away Payet and Rowe on the restart and very quickly they would spread out, with a number of laps completed before the red lights came on for Cory Smith who rolled heavily in turn one. He emerged shaken but unhurt, with eight laps remaining on the restart with eleven cars still on track, and Manders again leading away cleanly.

Payet slid by Manders for the lead in turn two shortly after and he held that position, Manders left to chase him down in the final laps and chase him down he did, grabbing the lead once again with just two laps remaining after racing side by side for a number of laps.

From here, Manders ultimately claimed a convincing win, with defending titleholder Payet being forced to settle for second while Nicholas Rowe had another strong run to finish in third place.

After what was a huge night, the Speedcars now have a couple of weeks off before returning to return to action on April 2, again at the Perth Motorplex.

Release by DTN Media. Peter Roebuck and WASDA Media.

Contingency Awards:
Coverall QuickTime – Tom Payet (16.199)

RPM Race Products Div 2 – Tom Callaghan

Coverall Hard Charger – Vaughan Manders (+6)
DTN Lucky 7 – Glen Mears

Feature, 25 laps: 1. Kaiden Manders, 2. Tom Payet, 3. Nicholas Rowe, 4. Daniel Golding, 5. Tom Callaghan, 6. Keenan Fleming, 7. Glen Mears, 8. Beau Doyle, 9. Vaughan Manders, 10. Patrick Watson (24). DNF: Ross Heywood (17), Cory Smith (17), Kaidon Brown (14), Gary Mann (3). DQ: Stuart Yates. DNS: Russell Taylor. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 1.093. Fastest Lap: 16.956 Tom Payet.